


Lost and Now Found

by DepressingGreenie



Series: Tiny Reverse Bang 2020 [12]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: (Hints of 616 Canon), Alternate Universe - Animals, Cat Tony Stark, Dog Steve Rogers, First Meetings, Hurt Steve Rogers, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Meet-Comfort(?), Protective Tony Stark, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:08:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26300932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DepressingGreenie/pseuds/DepressingGreenie
Summary: Tony finds a lost puppy on the streets and decides to help.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: Tiny Reverse Bang 2020 [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1836148
Comments: 5
Kudos: 160
Collections: 2020 Cap/Iron Man Tiny Reverse Bang





	Lost and Now Found

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [safe and sound](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25192549) by [starksnack](https://archiveofourown.org/users/starksnack/pseuds/starksnack). 



> **Code Name:** Timely ~ (Round 6)

Tony gives a quick glance behind him to make sure his mother wasn’t around before pressing his body up against the window. If his mother knew, the window would be shut for good, and he’d never be able to go outside ever again. Father would use one of those loud things to keep it sealed, the ones that spin and wurr loudly.

With a quiet pop the window unsticks from its jam, opening just enough for him to squeeze his body through.

He carefully pads up the roof tiles, climbing to his favourite spot on the roof. It had been raining for weeks and he wanted to get the most out of what little sun there was before it started raining again.

Tony stretches out in the sun, reaching his paws out far in front him. He purrs happily as the sun warms his back. Lazily he watches the people moving about in the streets below, going about their day.

His eyes slowly slip shut as he drifts off under the comfort of the sun, the sounds of the street below. Comfortable and warm. Dreaming of smoked salmon and chasing birds.

A kid screams down in the street below, waking him. Tony yawns and looks for the source of the noise.

“Puppy! Puppy!” the kid cries, tugging their mother’s dress, pointing down the alleyway. “Please?” The mother ignores the kid, continuing to talk with lady beside her.

Tony sighs at the noise and closes his eyes, folding his arms underneath him.

“Mommy! Please!”

His ears twitch with irritation at the volume of the kid’s cries.

“Mommy, look! Mommy? Mommy! Look! It’s Puppy!”

Tony gets up on his feet, his tail flicking with agitation. It looked like he wasn’t going to get any peace today. And knowing his luck it was going to rain again for the next couple of weeks.

Disappointed and grumpy, Tony walks across the roof towards the open window.

“Stop it, Owen.” The mother scolds, finally attending to her kid. “We’re not getting a puppy”

“No!” The kid shouts, gesturing towards the alley. The kid pulls away from the mother and takes a few steps towards where they were pointing. “Puppy”

The mother looks towards where the kid was pointing and goes white. She lets out a horrified squeak and grabs the kid by the collar, pulling them back towards her. “Owen, stay away from that creature!” She cries, her voice sharp in his ears. “It’s sick and diseased!”

“Mommy” The kid whines, struggling against their mother’s hold to no avail.

“You would think the council would do a better job of keeping those strays of the street.” The mother’s friend says. “It’s disgusting. And dangerous. They should think of all the children.”

“Oh, I’ll be writing the council a letter alright.” The mother says, scowling towards the alleyway.

“Let’s go. I know a place just around the corner on Madison.” With that the group leaves, taking all the noise with them.

But instead of returning to his sun spot, Tony finds himself walking down the roof towards front of the house, his curiosity getting the better of him. He looks over the edge into the alley. And sure enough, there is a sad looking lump of dirty brown fur curled up beside a dumpster.

Tony sprints across the roof and jumps over into a large tree, drops down onto the fence and then onto a bush, before landing safely on the ground. He slips his head through the bars of the front gate and looks around, making sure his path was safe. Assured that it was, Tony rushes from the property and across the road.

Cautiously he walks into the alley and approaches the filth soaked creature, hopping the puppy was alive. The pup doesn’t smell dead at least. He presses his paw to its belly and is relieved to feel the pup’s heartbeat.

As close as he was now to the pup, he could see the tremors wracking the poor pup’s frame. His paw, pressed against the pup’s side, grows cold and wet from the pup’s soaked fur. The puppy was so cold, frozen almost.

Carefully he nudges the pup, trying to get it to move, or uncurl from its tight donut. He untucks the pup’s head from underneath its large paws.

So far he hasn’t noticed any obvious wounds or injuries. But takes notice of a couple of long scars on the puppy’s head, overlapping slightly to almost form the shape of the letter ‘A’.

He paws at the puppy’s face, but gets no response. Tony lets out an anxious rumble. This wasn’t looking good. The pup was so weak, and showing no signs of waking.

Tony tries licking the puppy’s nose, hoping this would wake it. But it doesn’t. Desperate, Tony bites the pup’s nose.

The pup jerks back with a whimper, pressing itself up the dumpster weakly, gazing at him with hazy blue eyes that looked like they weren’t really seeing him.

A flash of sliver catches Tony’s attention. Around the puppy’s neck is a plain silver tag. He presses his paw against it to hold it still enough to read. There isn’t much on the tag, only the word “573 V3”. Tony squints at the text, trying to work out what it says. It’s a little harder to read then all the stuff around his home. He tilts his head to the side, then to the other side, doing his best to recognise those letters.

 _‘SPE-…?’_ He tries sounding out in his head.

_‘SRE-…?’_

_‘SRE-VE…?’_

It doesn’t quite sound right. Tony lets out a frustrated huff.

_‘SLE-VE…?’_

_‘STE-VE..?’_

_‘STEVE!”_ He’s heard people use that name before. On the TV. The pup must be called ‘Steve’.

Tony is pleased with himself for working out the pup’s name, but he doesn’t have the time to bask in that feeling. Instead he turns his focus back to the more important task at hand.

Steve needs help, but Tony can’t help him. But Tony is sure that his mother can.

Tony pulls out a large, dry piece of cardboard from under the dumpster, and does his best to roll Steve onto it.

When Steve is securely on the cardboard Tony takes one end in his mouth and drags it to the front of the alley. He sets the cardboard down and checks the traffic. It looked like it was clear.

Tony quickly picked up the end of the cardboard again and started dragging Steve across the road. He pulls as hard and as fast as he can. But it is still not quick enough to get them across the road before a car comes up to them, blaring it horn at them loudly.

He puffs himself up, arching his back as high as he can manage, and hisses at the car. The car continues honking its horn at them, but Tony doesn’t back down.

After a few more minutes the car gives up and drives around them. Tony gives the car one last hiss for good measure, levelling a glare at all the other cars that were waiting behind it.

He grabs the cardboard and continues dragging Steve across the street and over to the front gate.

There is no way that Tony could drag Steve on the cardboard under the gate, so he decides to leave the cardboard behind.

Steve lets out a small cry as Tony grabs hold of the scruff at the back of his neck. As carefully as Tony could manage he pulls Steve through the gate’s bars.

He reaches through the gate and swipes at the cardboard until he can pull it under the gate. He rolls Steve back onto the cardboard and pulls them up the gravel path towards the doorstep.

At the steps he discards the cardboard, deciding it would just be easier to pull Steve up the steps by his scruff.

The steps are difficult, maybe the most difficult part of the journey. Steve weighs about the same as he does, maybe less, which was proving to be a challenge. In the back of his mind he knows the pup should probably weigh more, Tony casts a worried glance at Steve’s thin waist.

As much as he tries to pull Steve up the steps it feels like Steve’s weight is just as much pull them back down them. But the real problem is that Steve is lip in his grasp, making real hard for him to get him up the steps. It was like dragging a bag of kibble.

But he manages. He lets out a sigh of relief when he finally manages to get Steve at the top of the doorsteps.

Tony sets Steve down at the doormat, taking a moment to making sure he hadn’t hurt the pup. He looks up at the doorbell, sizing up the jump. He can do this. It was just like chasing that evil red thing that sometimes appears around the house.

He coils up his muscles and jumps. He makes it, hitting the bell. Tony can hear it chime loudly through the house. Pleased, Tony walks over to Steve and sits beside him patiently.

It doesn’t take long before someone answers the door. It was his mother.

His mother looks around, her face pinched with confusion. Tony lets out a small meow to get her attention.

“Tony?” She calls, looking down. At the site of them his mother lets out a shocked gasp. “Darlings” she cries, crouching down to their level. “Oh you poor thing, you’re soaked to the bone.” Carefully she reaches out towards Steve, brushing her hand over his wet head.

Steve backs away from her touch, letting out a scared whine.

Tony brushes against his mother’s, purring loudly to try and convince Steve that it was okay.

Steve gives him a look before raising his head weakly to sniff at her hand. He gives her hand a single timid lick before dropping his head back to the ground.

His mother picks Steve up into her arms gently. “What happened, sweetheart?” She takes him into the house.

Tony follows her close behind. He knows his mother would take good care of Steve… but he just wanted to make sure the pup was okay himself. She takes him into the bathroom and lays him on a towel, whispering soothing words to him. Tony watches from the doorway, not wanting to let Steve out of his sight.

She leans over the bathtub and starts filling it with water, reaching into the water to test the temperature. Tony jumps up onto the sink so that he’d be able to watch over the bathtub.

When his mother puts Steve into the bath the pup cries and screams, thrashing about in his mother’s grasp. Strength the pup was lacking earlier is suddenly there as he tries to escape. It is painful to watch, his heart aches for the poor pup. He understands. He doesn’t like baths either.

By the time the bath is finished the bath water is a cloudy brown filled with sicks and muck. Steve is limp with exhaustion in her arms, having tried himself out.

His mother carefully warps Steve up in a towel and dries him. When she was satisfied that Steve was dry enough she discards the dirty towel into the laundry basket and wraps him up in a new one.

Tony follows her as she takes Steve from the bathroom all bundled up in the towel into one of the home’s many livingrooms. She takes one of the pillows from the couch and sets it on the floor by the window. Carefully she sets Steve down on the pillow, opening up the towel so he can stretch out in the sun.

Clean, Steve fur looks more like a soft wheat than the dirty brown from earlier. It glows in the sun like a fine, silken gold.

Tony gets up onto the pillow and curls up beside Steve. Tucking himself under one of Steve’s front legs, pressing his head up against the pup’s chest so that he could hear his heartbeat.

He doses off in the warmth of the sun, comfortable and satisfied, tucked up against his new friend.

**Author's Note:**

> The WIP name for this was 'PuppyCat', which I thought was cute. 
> 
> "573 V3" is the ID code on Steve's tag. He doesn't actually have a name, he only has that code. Steve is part of a secret government project to create to perfect field dog/war hound (Project Re-Bark). He is subject 573 of 3rd version of the project.  
> Also... 573V3 is just... the l337(Leet) for "STEVE" 😁
> 
> ~✨~  
>   
> ⋆Other sites I'm on are linked in [my profile](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DepressingGreenie/profile).  
>   
> ~✨~


End file.
